I love Christmas tales. Whether it be schmaltzy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel, the yearly Anne Perry Christmas mystery offering, or Richard Paul Evans's yuletide tear-jerker, or a perennial favorite - I love them. I don't necessarily wait for this time of year to read them, either. The themes of these tales are of love and forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation.
There is no shortage of children's picture books on the Nativity, some retelling the story in simplified language, and others taking the text directly from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and some from Isaiah. Those are my favorites, because the prose tells the story beautifully and I don't feel it's too difficult for even small children to understand, so it doesn't need to be re-written. Two of these I love because of the artwork as well as the text. Both sadly are currently out of print, but happily are available inexpensively at used bookstores online.
First is "The Nativity", illustrated by Juan Wijngaard. His beautiful watercolors drawn in a Renaissance style and framed to appear as church windows, with calligraphic text, make for a very enjoyable read.
Second, and probably my favorite, is Jan Pienkowski's "The First Christmas". Pienkowski's illustrations leave a lasting impression. They have at once both fairy tale and somber qualities to them. Vividly colored backgrounds and black silhouettes fit together beautifully. The author plays a bit with place and time - the manger is in a forest and the flight into Egypt is set against the background of a Gothic castle - and fashion - Mary's hair is in pigtails as she hangs laundry taken from a modern looking laundry basket. It sounds like it shouldn't work. Perhaps the anachronisms is what does make it work; the illustrations give the tale a timeless quality, and for this reader at least eloquently shows the love of God for all people through all ages. Search for it under the author's name and the two titles it was published under during its 25 year publication history: "The First Christmas", and simply, "Christmas".
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Three of my favorite Christmas titles are texts in the Public Domain: Henry Van Dyke's "Keeping Christmas", William Sydney Porter's (more commonly known as O. Henry) "Gift of the Magi", and Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol". All of these are available for as little as a dollar or even for free in various electronic formats on such sites as Project Gutenberg.
"Keeping Christmas" is a sermon Henry Van Dyke delivered in 1924, based upon Romans 14:6. In less than 500 words, he asks simple questions and gives much food for thought, starting with contrasting observing Christmas Day and keeping Christmas Day, and then reminding us to step outside ourselves to meet the needs of others, to do our part to make the world a better place: "to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you." This is a piece well worth reading every month of the year.
O. Henry's 1906 short story "Gift of the Magi" begins with: "One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies." How many opening sentences grab you like that? Many of you already know the story: young financially struggling married couple sell their most cherished possessions to buy a Christmas present for the other. It's been adapted but once for the big screen and but a few times for television, with a contemporary retelling coming to the Hallmark Channel this month. I mention this because here is a story primed for the likes of Hallmark: heavy on the sweet and sentimental. Don't get me wrong: I like sweet and sentimental, especially in Christmas stories; I've been watching syrupy Christmas tales and sappy Christmas romances for two weeks on the Hallmark Channel. But O. Henry's tale is more than just a tear-jerking tale. It is the simple story of two people who love each other so much that they are willing to give up what they most value to acquire something for who they most value. And what could be more Christmasy than that?
I don't generally count among my own personal favorites what others have deemed "classics". Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is an exception. After watching many movie adaptations and listening to a few radio plays (my favorite being Jonathan Winters' reading for NPR), last year I discovered the full text hiding many years upon my bookshelf. Everybody knows the tale: old miserly curmudgeon visited by apparitions who force him to examine his life, past, present and future, and reintroduce him to the human race. It's a powerful morality tale of second chances, of redemption from our own worst enemies - ourselves. And although there are many great radio plays and movies adapted from the book, I think the book offers a great deal more.
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Last but not least is Richard Paul Evans' picture book "The Christmas Candle" from 1999. Evans's selfish protagonist Thomas is anxious to get home to his family of a cold Christmas Eve, and he stops in at a chandler's shop for a candle for his lantern. He scorns the beautifully designed candles in favor of a plain and simple and cheap one. But after he leaves the chandler's shop, with a cryptic warning ringing in his ears, he discovers the plain candle illuminates in strange - and at first unwelcome - ways. Oil illustrations by Jacob Collins show poor beggars and waifs which under the light of the candle appear in turn to be Thomas's mother, brother and sister. It is not until Thomas has given away everything he possesses to care for those he supposes to be his family members that the lantern's light show him the truth. And it is not until he arrives home, cold and broke, that the light of understanding enters his mind and heart. I've gotten a little choked up when I have read this tale aloud to family and friends. It is a great tale of giving of oneself, seeing things in a pure light - the light of Christmas.
